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posted by chromas on Tuesday July 31 2018, @04:53PM   Printer-friendly

With All These New Planets Found in the Habitable Zone, Maybe it's Time to Fine Tune the Habitable Zone

In the past few decades, thousands of extra-solar planets have been discovered within our galaxy. As of July 28th, 2018, a total of 3,374 extra-solar planets have been confirmed in 2,814 planetary systems. While the majority of these planets have been gas giants, an increasing number have been terrestrial (i.e. rocky) in nature and were found to be orbiting within their stars' respective habitable zones (HZ).

However, as the case of the Solar System shows, HZs do not necessary mean a planet can support life. Even though Mars and Venus are at the inner and the outer edge of the Sun's HZ (respectively), neither is capable of supporting life on its surface. And with more potentially-habitable planets being discovered all the time, a new study suggests that it might be time to refine our definition of habitable zones.

Welcome to the Inhospitable Zone.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 31 2018, @05:15PM (3 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday July 31 2018, @05:15PM (#715291)

    The "habitable zone" concept doesn't say "On any planet in the habitable zone, you can find ETs." It says "If you're looking for carbon-and-water-based ETs, you almost definitely won't find them outside of this area because there isn't liquid water there barring some other heat source." It was created by people who were well aware that there's no known ET life on Venus or Mars, but that liquid water appears to have at least at one point existed on both planets, and there's chemistry reasons why life may or may not form on a planet.

    I'd be fine with focusing on planets towards the middle of the habitable zone first rather than the edges when looking for ETs, provided that this wouldn't increase the time the telescopes involved had to spend aiming at new targets.

    The "habitable zone" was always expected to be a very rough guideline, in much the same way as the Drake Equation is mostly just a way of thinking about the problem of finding ETs rather than a strict framework.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 31 2018, @05:27PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 31 2018, @05:27PM (#715300)

    I prefer the term "Goldilocks zone", there is nothing implicit in the term "habital zone" to suggest a suitable habitat for human life.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Tuesday July 31 2018, @09:04PM

      by acid andy (1683) on Tuesday July 31 2018, @09:04PM (#715392) Homepage Journal

      Maybe Goldilocks is getting less picky in her old age.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 31 2018, @05:53PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday July 31 2018, @05:53PM (#715311) Journal

    Or they completely understand the concept but want to make sure that the zones we are defining actually mean what we think they mean. Adjust the zone to fit the star parameters, predict the future of the zone based on the star's age, etc.

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